George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 
COLONEL  FLOWERS 


QREEN  HILL 


Digitized 

Iby 

the  Internel 

:  Arcliive 

in  2014 

littps://arcliive.org/details/greenliillOOivey 


Green  Hill 

by 

Thomas  Neai>  Ivey 


Edited  with  Genealogical  Notes  by 
J.  Edward  Allen 

WARRENTON,  N.  C. 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 
BY  THE  EDITOR 


•RKSS  OF  OXFORD  ORPHANAGE 
OXFORD,  X.  C. 


THE  FLOWc^  COLLECTlttM 


Green  Hill  3 


Prefatory  Note 

The  undersigned  has  pleasure  in  presenting  to 
the  reader  the  contents  of  this  booklet,  for  reasons 
which  will  be  self-evident.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  there  are  thousands  of  people  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  matters  of  family  history  which  are 
included,  and  which  have  not  hitherto  been  found 
in  print  except  in  fragments.  With  the  passage  of 
years,  the  facts  pertaining  thereto  will  inevitably 
become  more  obscure,  and  this  progressive  age  of 
North  Carolina  is  no  suitable  time  in  which  to  per- 
mit to  remain  concealed,  the  priceless  heritage  of 
the  past. 

Dr.  Thomas  Neal  Ivey  was  one  of  the  South's 
foremost  men  of  letters,  and  the  paper  by  him  which 
is  included  in  the  contents  of  this  booklet  is  an  im- 
portant contribution  to  the  literature  of  this  state 
and  of  the  entire  South.  As  editor  of  the  Raleigh 
Christian  Advocate,  and  later  of  the  organ  of  the 
General  Conference,  the  Nashville  Christian  Advo- 
cate. Doctor  Ivey  had  deserved  opportunity  to 
demonstrate  well  and  widely  his  literary  powers, 
and  his  General  Conference  is  the  gainer  thereby. 

At  its  1926  sessions,  the  North  Carolina  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
resolved  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  take  steps 
looking  toward  the  acquisition  by  the  Conference 
of  Green  Hill,  once  the  residence  of  the  pioneer 
minister-patriot  from  whom  it  takes  its  name,  to 
the  end  that  it  may  be  used  for  all  purposes  to  which 
it  may  lend  itself,  and  that  it  may  be  retained  as  a 
monument  to  the  man  and  to  his  ideals.  The  execu- 
tion of  the  provisions  of  this  resolution,  which  was 
introduced  by  President  William  Preston  Few,  of 
Duke  University,  anticipates  perhaps  more  general 
information  concerning  Green  Hill  than  exists  at  the 


4 


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present  time.  It  is  not  believed  that  the  people  of 
our  great  commonwealth  will  suffer  from  being  bet- 
ter informed  concerning  this  member  of  that  group 
of  outstanding  men  who  may  well  be  called  the 
founders  of  Southern  Methodism  and  of  North  Caro- 
lina statehood. 

Bute  County,  and  Franklin  and  Warren,  which 
were  formed  from  it,  have  made  an  enviable  contri- 
bution to  the  statesmanship  of  North  Carolina.  It 
is  hoped  that  other  names  may  be  selected  for  study 
by  other  historians. 

The  writer's  happy  recollections  of  childhood 
days  as  a  guest  of  his  grandparents  at  Green  Hill, 
and  later  at  Louisburg  College;  and  his  fondness 
for  his  grandmother,  Mrs.  Louisa  Hill  Davis  (Mrs. 
Matthew  S.  Davis),  who  will,  it  is  hoped,  read  it 
with  pleasure,  have  in  large  measure  inspired  the 
publication  of  this  booklet. 

J.  Edward  Allen. 


MRS.  LOUISE  HILL  DAVIS,  (1836-  ) 

(Mrs.  Matthew  S.  Davis):  The  Oldest  Living  Graduate  of 
Louisburg  College,  (Class  of  1853);  Widow  of  One 
of  Its  Presidents  and  Mother  of  Another. 


Green  Hill 


5 


Introductory  and  Genealogical  Notes 

Green  Hill,  the  second,  the  subject  of  Doctor  Ivey's  sketch, 
was  the  son  of  the  elder  Green  Hill,  the  earliest  member  of  the 
Hill  family  of  whom  there  is  available  to  the  writer  of  this  intro- 
duction, any  authentic  information.  It  is  with  much  supporting 
evidence  believed  that  his  father  was  Robert  Hill  of  Halifax 
county.  The  first  Green  Hill  was  a  prominent  citizen  of  the  state, 
public-spirited  and  influential.  Grace  Bennett,  wife  of  the  elder 
Green  Hill,  was  the  daughter  of  ''William  Bennett,  Gentleman," 
of  Northampton  county,  North  Carolina.  A  deed  to  land  given 
him  by  the  Earl  of  Granville,  one  of  the  Lords  Proprietors,  so 
describes  him.  He  was  Captain  of  the  Roanoke  Company  of  101 
men,  Northampton  Regiment,  Colonial  Militia,  in  1748.  (Colonial 
Records,  XXII,  273.) 

The  records  of  Blandford  Bute  Lodge  of  Masons,  which  were 
rediscovered  in  1914,  show  that  this  lodge  was  in  existence  as 
early  as  1766,  having  its  meetings  in  old  Bute  county,  from  which 
Warren  and  Franklin  were  formed  in  1779.  The  first  lodge  hall 
was  a  few  miles  from  old  Jones'  Springs,  a  famous  watering  place, 
near  which  Anne  Carter  Lee,  daughter  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee,  was 
buried,  and  from  which  neighborhood  her  remains  were  never 
removed.  The  lodge  afterward  was  moved  to  Warrenton,  and 
became  Johnston-Caswell,  No.  10,  of  which  this  present  writer 
is  a  member.  These  records  show  that  Green  Hill,  Henry  Hill 
and  William  Hill,  were  members  of  the  lodge.  These  lodges  were, 
during  the  Revolutionary  period,  really  Committees  of  Delibera- 
tion on  the  State  of  the  Country,  and,  therefore,  the  minutes  cease 
for  the  period  of  the  war.  The  members  for  the  most  part  came 
from  the  vicinity  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  whence  the  name  of  "Bland- 
ford-Bute."  Many  names  on  its  rolls  are  identical  with  those  of 
the  charter  list  of  the  parent  organization  in  Petersburg,  Bland- 
ford,  No.  3,  chartered  in  1757.  The  section  north  of  Raleigh  and 
east  of  Roxboro,  North  Carolina,  was  very  largely  settled  by 
people  who  came  south  from  eastern  Virginia.  Abigail  Sugan, 
hereinafter  mentioned,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  woman  in 
the  armies  going  southward,  to  cross  the  Roanoke  River. 

When  the  first  Colonial  Assembly  of  North  Carolina,  described 
as  the  first  popular  Convention  of  any  Colony  in  America,  was 
held  in  New  Bern  on  August  25,  1774,  Green  Hill  was  among  the 
delegates  present.  It  is  declared  that  no  such  Convention  had  ever 
preceded  this  in  America,  except  by  royal  authority  or  approval. 
It  met  in  defiance  of  the  Crown  and  its  royal  Governor  and  his 
proclamations,  there  being  seventy  members  present,  representing 
almost  all  of  the  thirty-five  counties. 


6 


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Chief  Justice  Clark,  editor  of  the  North  Carolina  Colonial 
Records,  said  of  this  Convention  that  it  "never  had  a  superior 
from  that  day  to  this,  and  doubtless  never  will  in  all  time  to  come. 
Scarcely  a  name  prominent  in  the  annals  of  the  day  is  wanting.'* 

The  second  Provincial  Congress  was  held  at  Hillsboro,  on 
August  25,  1775,  and  Green  Hill  was  again  present. 

Green  Hill,  the  elder,  had  four  sons  and  four  daughters.  Facts 
are  available  from  a  number  of  sources,  among  these  being  two 
Hill  Bibles.  One  of  these  was  formerly  owned  by  Mrs.  Mary  Foy, 
or  Ivy,  of  St.  Louis;  the  other  is  now  owned  by  Mr.  Hill  Fergu- 
son, of  Birmingham,  Alabama.  The  four  sons  were  Henry,  born 
in  1740;  Green,  born  in  1741,  Bennett,  born  in  1745,  William,  born 
in  1750.  The  daughters  were  Mary,  born  in  1754,  Sarah,  born  in 
1756,  Temperance,  born  in  1761,  and  Elizabeth,  born  in  1763.  All 
of  these  married  and  had  large  families,  their  descendants  being 
found  in  practically  every  Southern  state  today. 

The  writer's  own  family  is  descended  from  the  fourth  son, 
William  Hill,  who  married  Mary  (or  Polly)  Jones,  daughter  of 
Sugan  Jones,  and  granddaughter  of  Edward  Jones  and  wife,  Abi- 
gail Sugan  Jones — this  latter  the  famous  progenitor  of  a  large 
number  of  substantial  citizens  of  the  North  Carolina  of  the  present 
day.  William  and  Mary  Jones  Hill  were  married  in  1776,  and  to 
them  were  born  four  sons:  William  Bennett,  born  in  1779,  Samuel 
Sugan,  born  in  1781,  James  Jones,  born  in  1782,  and  Charles 
Applewhite,  born  in  1784. 

Charles  Applewhite  Hill,  the  next  in  the  present  writer's  line, 
was  a  distinguished  and  successful  educator,  the  author  of  a  Latin 
Grconniar,  a  copy  of  which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Mrs.  Louisa 
Hill  Davis,  the  writer's  grandmother.  There  are  other  prominent 
descendants  of  William  Hill:  the  late  Senator  Augustus  Hill  Gar- 
land of  Arkansas,  Attorney  General  in  Cleveland's  Cabinet,  and 
often  described  as  the  strongest  member  thereof,  was  one.  The 
name  of  Charles  Applewhite  Hill  is  attached  to  the  bill  providing 
funds  for  the  first  public  schools  in  North  Carolina. 

He  married  in  1806,  Rebecca  Wesley  Long,  daughter  of  Gabriel 
Long  and  grandaughter  of  Col.  Nicholas  Long,  who  was  one  of 
the  most  prominent  men  of  his  time;  a  member  of  the  same  Pro- 
vincial Congress  in  1774  and  again  in  1775;  Quartermaster  Gen- 
eral in  the  Continental  Army;  member  of  the  Committee  of  Safety 
of  Halifax  county;  Commissioner  of  Confiscated  Property;  made 
Colonel  by  the  Congress  in  1775;  member  of  the  North  Carolina 
State  Senate  in  1784.  To  Charles  A.  and  Rebecca  Wesley  Long 
were  born  William  George,  Mary  Ann,  Daniel  Shine,  Kemp  Plum- 
mer,  Nicholas  Long,  Richard  Henry,  Martha  Caroline,  Sarah  R., 
and  Charles  J.  Hill,  whose  names  are  given  in  order  of  age. 

The  third  of  these,  Daniel  Shine  Hill,  born  in  1812,  was  mar- 
ried in  1835  to  Susan  Irwin  Toole,  who  was  granddaughter  of  the 
Rev.  John  King,  M.D.,  who  was  educated  in  England  for  the  min- 
istry of  the  Established  Church,  and  afterward  became  a  Methodist 


Green  Hill 


7 


and  came  to  Baltimore,  Maryland,  where  a  monument  was  recently 
erected  to  his  memory.  Doctor  King  studied  at  Oxford  University. 
He  was  disowned  by  his  family  when  he  came  under  Wesley's 
inflluence.  He  preached  "through  the  heroic  days  of  Methodism;" 
to  use  the  words  of  a  writer  describing  him  in  the  William  and 
Mary  Quarterly;  and  is  elsewhere  described  as  "the  father  of 
Methodism  in  North  Carolina." 

Susan  Toole  Hill  was  also  the  granddaughter  of  Geraldus 
Toole,  who  "owned  fourteen  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Edgecombe 
county,"  (the  "Conetoe  Plantation"),  according  to  Joseph  Lacy 
Seawell,  and  whose  ancestry  is  traced  directly  to  old  Ireland's 
nobility. 

Her  grandmother  on  her  father's  side  was  a  sister  of  Col. 
Henry  Irwin,  who  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Germantown.  Susan 
Toole  Hill  inherited  considerable  property  from  her  father. 

The  eldest  daughter  of  Daniel  Shine  Hill  was  Sarah  Louisa 
Hill,  who  was  born  in  1836,  was  married  in  1857  to  Matthew  S. 
Davis,  of  Louisburg,  and  who  is  now  living  in  Warrenton,  N.  C, 
as  this  is  written.  Another  of  the  children  of  Daniel  S.  Hill  was 
Dr.  Charles  Geraldus  Hill,  who  became  a  resident  of  Baltimore, 
Maryland,  and  there  was  until  his  death  in  1925  one  of  its  most 
prominent  physicians.  Others  were  Mrs.  Walter  Starke,  now 
living;  Mrs.  Madeline  Best,  Mrs.  Pauline  Brooks,  who  was  the 
wife  of  Dr.  John  R.  Brooks,  of  the  Methodist  ministry,  Mrs.  Flor- 
ence Jones;  Susan  Irwin,  who  died  young;  Daniel  Sehon;  William; 
and  Mrs.  Carrie  Painter,  now  living. 

Many  of  the  present  generation  still  remember  Matthew  S. 
Davis,  who  was  for  years  a  teacher  of  boys  in  the  Louisburg 
Academy,  and  later  in  1896,  became  president  of  Louisburg  Col- 
lege, which  position  he  held  until  his  death  in  1906.  The  writer 
remembers  the  time  when  he,  as  a  boy,  visited  his  grandfather, 
Matthew  S.  Davis,  at  old  "Green  Hill,"  near  Louisburg.  There 
were,  and  are,  high  mantels  in  the  house.  There  are  still  scars 
on  his  knuckles,  occasioned  by  falling  in  the  fire  while 
hunting  on  one  of  these  mantels  for  something  eagerly  sought  by 
a  boy.  When  Matthew  S.  Davis  moved  his  household  goods  to 
Louisburg  College  to  become  its  president,  the  writer  rode  on  one 
of  the  wagons  filled  with  furniture.  The  horses  on  a  return  journey 
became  frightened,  ran  away,  and  threw  this  writer  out  into  a 
thicket  of  blackberry  briars.  The  title  to  "Green  Hill"  has  never 
been  held  by  any  other  than  a  member  of  the  same  family. 

Matthew  S.  Davis  and  his  brothers  were  grandsons  of  Burwell 
Davis,  the  elder,  who  was  a  soldier  in  Sharp's  Company,  Tenth 
North  Carolina  Continental  Regiment,  in  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Robert  Edward  Davis,  Sheriff  of  W^arren  county,  and -William 
Edward  Davis,  of  Creek,  N.  C,  also  now  living,  are  grandsons  of 
this  soldier  of  the  Revolution. 

The  children  of  Matthew  S.  Davis  and  Louisa  Hill  Davis  are: 
Florence  Davis,  now  Mrs.  Eugene  S.  Allen;  Mary,  now  Mrs.  Ivey 


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and  after  some  years  joined  her  husband,  Secretary-Treasurer  of 
the  Masonic  Orphanage  at  Oxford,  N.  C,  as  senior  teacher  in  its 
high  school;  Lula,  who  married  Robert  Zollicoffer  Egerton  and 
resides  in  Louisburg,  N.  C;  Mabel  Irwin,  Librarian  of  the  Memo- 
rial Library  at  Warrenton;  Marion  Stuart  Davis,  architect,  resid- 
ing at  Louisburg;  and  the  Rev.  Edward  Hill  Davis,  of  the  North 
Carolina  Conference.    Charles  died  in  young  manhood. 

Mrs.  Louisa  Hill  Davis  takes  no  little  pride  in  the  fact  that 
she  is  an  unregenerate  daughter  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  Its 
traditions,  and  the  scenes  of  the  War  between  the  States,  are  still 
fresh  and  live  vividly  in  her  mind.  The  "Yankee"  army  camped 
in  the  grove  for  a  season,  in  front  of  her  door:  and  may  not  easily 
be  forgotten.  She  is  the  oldest  living  graduate  of  Louisburg 
College. 

Eugene  S.  Allen  is  the  son  of  the  late  Nat  Allen,  at  one  time 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  of  Warren  county.  The 
family  is  descended  from  Capt.  Charles  Allen,  who  saw  distin- 
guished service  in  the  War  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  who 
was  the  son  of  Richard  Allen,  of  Brunswick  county,  Virginia,  whose 
father  came  to  that  state  about  1720  from  England.  A  copy  of 
the  coat  of  arms  of  the  family  is  in  the  possession  of  the  writer. 
The  Rev.  J.  T.  Gibbs,  D.  D.,  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  is  a  descendant  of  Capt.  Charles 
Allen.  Nat  Allen  himself  was  on  Gen.  Robert  W.  Ransom's  staff 
in  the  War  between  the  States,  four  of  his  brothers  also  having 
been  in  the  armies  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  His  nephew, 
George  Garland  Allen,  son  of  the  late  Peter  H.  Allen,  is  at  the 
head  of  the  Duke  Endowment,  the  most  notable  philanthropy  that 
North  Carolina  has  ever  seen. 

The  children  of  Eugene  S.  Allen  and  Florence  D.  Allen  are: 
John  Edward,  the  present  writer;  Mary  Louise,  and  Charles  Pryor. 
The  eldest  of  these,  the  writer,  introduces  himself  as  a  school  man, 
superintendent  of  schools  in  his  native  city  and  county;  and  his 
brother  and  sister  as  engaged  in  mercantile  business  with  their 
father. 

In  conclusion  the  writer  makes  mention  of  the  fact  that  in 
1921  there  became  his  wife  Sue  Council  Broom,  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Robert  Houston  Broom,  of  the  North  Carolina  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  native  of  Union  county, 
and  his  wife.  Sue  Council,  native  of  Bladen  county,  a  lineal  des- 
cendant of  Col.  Alexander  McAllister,  of  Revolutionary  fame,  from 
whom  hundreds  of  successful  people  in  this  and  other  states  trace 
their  descent.  Children  of  J.  Edward  and  Sue  Broom  Allen  are 
Isabel  McAllister  and  Frances  Jean  Allen. 


Green  Hill 


9 


GREEN  HILL 

Preacher,  Patriot,  Pioneer 
By  Thomas  Neal  Ivey 

Read  before  the  Historical  Society  of  the  Western  North 
Carolina  Conference,  October  19,  1920 

It  can  be  safely  stated  that  there  are  comparatively 
few  who  can  locate  chronologically  the  subject  of  this 
paper  or  mention  any  fact  that  would  naturally  project 
him  as  a  distinct  historical  character.  He  figures  only 
modestly  in  the  annals  of  his  State  and  Church.  No 
standard  history  gives  him  more  than  passing  mention. 
Then  why  introduce  him  to  a  Historical  Society  as  the 
legitimate  subject  of  an  historical  paper?  Simply 
because  he  was  a  maker  of  history.  Every  history- 
maker  is  a  ward,  if  not  a  child,  of  history,  possessing  a 
valid  claim  to  that  publicity  which  represents  more  a 
method  of  ethical  torch-bearing  than  a  method  of  sen- 
sational advertising. 

There  should  be  a  clear  conception  of  what  is  meant 
by  history.  Mr.  Emerson  in  his  elaborate  essay  on 
''History"  is  entitled  to  attention  when  he  says : 
''Broader  and  deeper  we  must  write  our  annals — from 
an  ethical  reformation,  from  an  influence  of  the  ever 
new,  ever  sanative  conscience — if  we  would  trulier 
express  our  central,  wide  relative  nature  instead  of  this 
old  chronology  of  selfishness  and  pride  to  which  we  have 
too  long  lent  our  ears."  The  essence  of  the  meaning  of 
these  words  is  that  apart  from  the  history  of  the  old 
chronology  and  the  pride  of  spectacular  events  and  of 
haloed  personalities,  is  a  truer,  juster,  higher  history  of 
ethical  reformations  springing  from  impulses  born  amid 
individual  strivings  and  of  mighty,  if  not  advertised, 
exploits  inspired  by  that  "sanative  conscience"  whicn 
ignores  mere  chronologies  and  despises  the  chaplet-leaf 
of  fame. 


10 


Green  Hill 


To  this  latter  kind  of  history  belongs  the  subject  of 
this  paper.  We  cannot  study  his  life  with  its  high  ideal- 
ism, its  keen  pioneering  energies,  and  its  sound  construc- 
tive service  to  Church  and  country  without  realizing 
that  he  justifies  his  claim  to  the  attention  of  the  higher 
history  and  answers  signally  to  that  definition  of  a 
''great  man"  given  by  Mr.  Emerson  in  another  essay: 
'1  count  him  great  who  inhabits  a  higher  sphere  of 
thought  into  which  other  men  rise  with  difficulty  and 
labor."  Because  of  the  chronic  and  seemingly  incurable 
misconception  of  the  meaning  of  real  history  and  of  real 
greatness  we  find  in  Green  Hill  one  of  history's  almost 
''forgotten  men."  The  mission  of  this  paper  is  to  bring 
him  out,  if  possible,  into  the  light  of  a  broader  recog- 
nition and  a  more  appreciative  memory;  for  to  remem- 
ber truly  such  a  man  is  to  keep  flowing  a  fountain  which 
for  more  than  a  century  has  been  pouring  its  waters  into 
the  mighty  current  of  our  national  life. 

IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  MORNING 

Green  Hill,  the  son  of  Green  and  Grace  Bennett  Hill, 
was  born  in  Bute  County,  North  Carolina,  November  3, 
1741.  There  are  no  records  which  throw  any  light  on 
his  immediate  forbears.  It  is  highly  presumable  that 
they  moved  to  North  Carolina  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  with  that  band  of  English  settlers 
who  located  around  Albemarle  Sound  and  later  on  the 
banks  of  the  Roanoke.  That  the  Hills  of  that  early  day 
were  members  of  the  Established  Church  may  be  taken 
for  granted.  There  is  an  old  entry  to  the  effect  that 
Green  Hill,  undoubtedly  the  father  of  our  subject,  was 
appointed  vestryman  of  the  Parish  of  St.  George  in  1758. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  know  so  little  of  the  boy- 
hood and  youth  of  Green  Hill.  It  must  be  apparent  to 
all  that  there  is  a  decided  disadvantage  for  one  who 
essays  to  draw  the  picture  and  appraise  the  life  of  a  man 
who  is  not  seen  in  the  morning  light  of  boyhood  and 
youth.  That  morning  light  is  needed  to  harmonize  per- 
spectives, equalize  values,  and  explain  many  things  that 
appear  so  plain  at  noonday  or  in  the  mellow  light  of 


Green  Hill 


11 


evening.  Imagination,  however,  using  the  knowledge  of 
conditions  that  obtained  in  the  Carolina  Province  in 
1741,  can  make  the  best  of  it.  In  those  days  every 
inviting  avenue,  it  seems  now,  was  closed  to  the  boy. 
The  country  was  a  tangled  wilderness.  The  settlers 
were  widely  scattered.  There  was  not  a  regular  school 
house  in  the  whole  colony.  There  was  no  post  office. 
There  was  no  newspaper.  There  were  only  a  few 
churches  scattered  over  a  vast  territory.  The  Sunday 
School  had  not  been  established.  Steam  and  electricity 
were  unknown.  There  was  not  a  public  road.  Yet  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  assume  that  boyhood  in  that  day 
was  only  a  stretch  of  strenuous,  cheerless  existence,  and 
that  Green  Hill  as  a  boy  did  not  find  all  that  was  neces- 
sary to  fill  to  the  brim  the  cup  of  eager,  bounding, 
inquisitive  life. 

IN  THE  PATHWAY  OF  TWO  EPOCHAL  MOVEMENTS 

During  these  early  days  two  epochal  movements, 
whose  respective  culminations  were  destined  to  change 
the  history  not  only  of  America  but  of  the  whole  world, 
were  rapidly  gathering  force.  They  had  been  born  long 
years  before  Green  Hill  was  born.  They  were  to  envelop 
him  and  either  make  him  or  leave  him  a  mere  human 
fragment  in  their  wake.  One  of  these  movements  was 
toward  civil  freedom.  The  other  was  toward  that  broad 
ecclesiastical  freedom  which  promotes  the  highest  spiri- 
tual liberty  for  the  individual  and  the  State.  The 
one  culminated  in  the  American  Republic ;  the  other  in 
American  Episcopal  Methodism. 

Both  movements,  as  has  been  stated,  enveloped  Green 
Hill  at  a  critical  time  in  the  life  of  the  movements  and 
in  the  life  of  the  man  himself.  We  see  the  credentials 
of  his  eminent  forcefulness  in  his  active  relationship  to 
these  movements.  He  rose  to  the  full  heights  of  the  situ- 
ation. He  showed  a  loyalty  so  true,  a  devotion  so 
exalted,  and  a  service  so  self-sacrificing  and  constructive 
as  to  make  it  impossible  for  us  now  to  dig  beneath  our 
Republic  and  our  Methodism  without  finding  him  among 
the  foundation  stones  of  the  imposing  superstructures. 


12 


Green  Hill 


In  studying  his  claim  to  remembrance  on  the  part  of  the 
nation  and  of  Methodism  we  must  view  him  in  his  rela- 
tions to  these  movements,  and  to  another  movement  to 
be  considered  later  on  in  this  paper. 

EPISCOPAL  METHODISM  IN  AMERICA 

The  resistless  urge  toward  the  goal  representing  the 
establishment  of  Episcopal  Methodism  in  America  really 
began  that  evening  in  Aldergate  Street  in  1739,  when 
John  Wesley  felt  his  heart  ''strengely  warmed,"  and  at 
last  rejoiced  in  the  long-sought  consciousness  of  spiri- 
tual freedom.  That  ''strange  warmth"  and  the  thrill  of 
a  new-found  liberty  in  Christ  Jesus  established  the 
Methodist  Societies  in  England  in  1740.  It  had  much  to 
do  with  the  repeated  visits  to  America  of  George  White- 
field  who  went  as  a  flame  of  evangelical  fire  up  and  down 
the  Atlantic  Seaboard.  It  sent  Philip  Embury  to  New 
York  in  1760.  In  the  heart  of  Robert  Strawbridge  it 
operated  to  build  the  first  Methodist  Church  in  America 
in  1768.  It  built  St.  John's  Church  in  New  York  in  1768. 
It  brought  Francis  Asbury  across  the  sea  in  1771.  It 
sent  Robert  Williams  to  Virginia  in  1772. 

The  religious  condition  in  North  Carolina  when  it 
was  first  touched  by  the  breath  of  Methodism  was  not 
encouraging.  There  were  few  churches.  There  were  not 
more  than  several  dozen  Established  churches  and 
chapels  in  the  whole  province.  Only  clergymen  of  the 
Established  Church  were  allowed  to  perform  the  rites 
of  matrimony.  The  Baptists  were  preaching  at  several 
points.  There  were  fewer  than  twenty  congregations  of 
Presbyterians.  Several  Lutheran  and  German  Reformed 
churches  were  being  established  in  the  western  part  of 
the  State.  The  Moravians  had  settled  what  is  now 
known  as  Forsyth  County  in  1753.  The  Moravians  had 
been  preaching  in  the  Province  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years.  To  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  the  spiritual  destitution 
of  the  province  in  the  latter  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
century  we  have  only  to  read  the  diaries  of  Francis 
Asbury  and  others.  Some  of  the  entries  appear  amusing 
to  us,  but  at  that  time  the  facts  were  far  from  amusing. 


Green  Hill 


13 


The  condition  was  so  alarming  during  the  administration 
of  Governor  Gabriel  Johnson  that  he  deemed  it  necessary 
to  read  to  the  House  a  special  message  on  the  subject. 

Green  Hill  was  more  than  thirty  years  old  when  he 
found  himself  caught  in  the  swirl  of  the  invincible 
Methodist  movement.  We  do  not  know  exactly  when  it 
was.  It  may  have  been  when  Joseph  Pilmoor,  the  first 
Methodist  preacher  to  set  foot  on  North  Carolina  soil, 
came  down  from  Virginia  and  set  the  whole  section 
blazing  with  revival  fire.  Or  it  may  have  been  a  little 
later  under  the  preaching  of  Robert  Williams,  who 
organized  the  first  Methodist  Society  in  North  Carolina, 
or  during  that  wonderful  revival  which  started  under 
the  preaching  of  Robert  Williams  in  Virginia  in  1772 
and  swept  across  the  border  into  Bute  County,  in  which 
Green  Hill  lived.  It  was  probably  under  John  King's 
influence.  But  one  day  he  felt  the  Methodist  tide  wash- 
ing around  his  feet  as  he  listened  to  preaching  which 
caused  him  to  make  the  great  renunciation  and  the  great 
surrender.  He  was  not  content  to  bask  in  the  new 
liberty  into  which  the  Holy  Spirit  had  brought  him.  He 
entered  the  new  life  as  a  leader.  Shortly  after  his  con- 
version he  began  as  a  local  preacher  to  establish  the  new 
faith  in  his  community.  It  was  through  the  preaching 
of  Pilmoor  and  Williams  and  of  such  local  preachers  as 
Green  Hill  and  others  that  the  North  Carolina  Circuit  to 
which  Poythress,  Dromgoole,  and  Tatum  were  appointed 
in  1775,  had  683  members.  He  had  helped  to  lay  the 
mudsills  of  Episcopal  Methodism  and  was  striving  with 
all  his  soul  to  build  his  very  life  into  the  structure.  He 
was  the  first  native  son  of  North  Carolina,  so  far  as  is 
known,  to  become  a  Methodist  preacher. 

THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC 

Let  us  now  leave  Green  Hill  as  a  leader  in  that 
movement  which  was  later  to  culminate  in  the  establish- 
ment of  American  Episcopal  Methodism,  and  see  him  as 
a  leader  in  that  other  movement  which  culminated  in  the 
establishment  of  the  American  Republic. 


14 


Green  Hill 


The  history  of  the  American  colonies  is  the  history 
of  conflict — not  so  much  with  Indians,  the  wilderness, 
and  the  rigors  of  soil  and  climate,  as  that  waged  by  the 
spirit  of  freedom  which  forced  Magna  Charta  from  King 
John  on  June  15,  1215,  and  then  set  out  to  show  every- 
where and  at  all  times  a  mailed  hand  against  tyranny. 
The  story  of  North  Carolina,  therefore,  is  a  story  of  the 
victories  and  defeats  of  this  spirit  of  liberty.  It  was 
very  active  during  the  Proprietary  Period,  1663  to  1729. 
It  was  manifest  in  active  opposition  to  the  payment  of 
export  duties,  the  exactions  of  the  Established  Church, 
and  other  forms  of  royal  tyrannies  exercised  through 
mercenary  proprietors.  There  was  a  bloody  clash  dur- 
ing the  administration  of  Governor  Tryon  in  1768  on 
the  field  of  Alamance.  The  iniquity  of  the  Stamp  Act 
was  firing  the  animosities  of  the  people.  The  conflict 
assumed  a  very  serious  form  in  1774  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  Governor  Martin  when,  on  August  25,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  the  governor,  the  first  Provincial 
Assembly  met  at  New  Bern  to  elect  delegates  to  a  Conti- 
nental Congress  at  Philadelphia,  which  congress  assumed 
to  exercise  powers  vested  in  the  people,  and  to  acknowl- 
edge no  duty  whatever  to  the  Crown. 

YIELDING  TO  THE  CALL  OF  PATRIOTISM 

The  first  Provincial  Assembly  in  North  Carolina  was 
made  up  of  delegates  elected  by  the  people.  According 
to  Wheeler  in  his  History  of  North  Carolina,  "it  was 
not  a  conflict  of  arms  or  force,  but  it  was  the  first  act 
of  that  great  drama  in  which  battles  and  blood  formed 
only  subordinate  parts.  It  was  the  first  assembly  of 
the  people  of  North  Carolina  in  a  representative  charac- 
ter in  opposition  to  the  Royal  Queen."  It  is  not  strange 
to  find  as  a  delegate  to  this  great  meeting  our  local 
Methodist  preacher.  Green  Hill.  He  and  William  Person 
were  delegates  from  Bute  County,  which  will  ever  be 
known  in  North  Carolina  as  the  county  in  which  there 
were  ''no  tories."  It  would  have  been  as  difficult  for 
Green  Hill  to  refrain  from  participating  in  this  conflict 
as  from  becoming  a  local  preacher  of  Methodism  after 


Green  Hill 


15 


the  great  light  had  broken  into  his  soul.  That  construc- 
tive element  in  his  nature  with  the  strong  ethical  impulse 
made  him  a  forceful  leader  in  the  ranks  of  those  who 
established  the  American  Republic  and  in  the  ranks  of 
the  white  bannered  host  that  established  American 
Methodism. 

The  second  Provincial  Congress  met  at  New  Bern  on 
April  3,  1775.  It  was  called  by  the  moderator  of  the 
First  Provincial  Congress.  The  House  of  Assembly 
which  had  been  elected  by  order  of  Governor  Martin  met 
at  the  same  time  and  place.  The  members  of  one  body 
were  the  members  of  the  other.  There  is  record  ot 
Green  Hill's  having  been  a  member  of  this  Second  Pro- 
vincial Congress.  The  Third  Provincial  Congress  met  at 
Hillsboro  on  the  20th  of  August,  the  same  year.  At  this 
Congress  momentous  action  was  taken,  severing  relation- 
ship with  the  Crown.  A  kind  of  provincial  government 
was  established,  an  army  was  placed  in  the  field,  and  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  issue  of  necessary  currency. 
Green  Hill  was  a  member  of  this  Third  Provincial  Con- 
gress. He  was  appointed  to  serve  on  one  of  the  most 
im^portant  committees — that  of  Privileges  and  Elections. 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  to  be  remembered  that  at  least 
three  members  were  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  Green  Hili 
of  the  Methodist  Societies,  from  Bute,  Rev.  William  Hill 
of  the  Baptist  Church,  from  Surry,  and  Rev.  Henry 
Patillo,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Green  Hill  was  a  member  of  the  Fourth  Provincial 
Congress  which  met  in  April,  1776,  at  Halifax,  as  w^as 
also  his  brother-in-law,  Benjamin  Seawell.  The  crown- 
ing work  of  this  Congress  was  to  affirm  the  province's 
absolute  independence  of  the  mother  country.  Thus 
North  Carolina  led  all  the  colonies  in  affirming  this  inde- 
pendence. At  this  Congress  Green  Hill  received  a  mili- 
tary title — that  of  Major  of  the  Militia.  He  was  known 
later  in  life  as  ''Colonel  Hill,"  but  if  he  received  any  other 
title  than  that  of  Major  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  the 
record.  He  was  placed  on  a  committee  to  regulate  the 
militia.  Cornelius  Harnett,  Samuel  Ashe  and  William 
Hooper  were  his  follow-committeemen.    He  was  also 


16 


Green  Hill 


designated  as  one  of  the  signers  of  the  bills  of  credit 
issued  by  Congress.  The  highest  testimony  to  his  influ- 
ence and  ability  was  his  appointment  on  a  committee 
to  prepare  a  civil  constitution.  The  committee  failed  to 
agree  on  a  constitution,  but  appointed  a  sub-committee 
to  propose  a  temporary  form  of  government  pending  the 
next  session  of  the  Assembly.  The  Council  of  Safety 
was  appointed,  and  the  Council  recommended  that  on  the 
15th  of  the  following  October  delegates  should  be  elected 
to  meet  on  November  12,  to  form  a  constitution.  This 
latter  assembly  had  Richard  Caswell  for  its  President. 
On  December  17,  a  day  ever  to  be  remembered  in  North 
Carolina,  a  bill  of  rights  was  adopted.  On  December 
18  a  constitution  was  adopted,  with  Caswell  as  Governor, 
and  North  Carolina  became  entirely  independent  of  the 
British  Government. 

Green  Hill  was  not  a  delegate  to  the  famous  Assem- 
bly, though  no  man  in  the  State  had  done  more  to  mak^ 
it  possible.  We  find  him,  however,  an  active  member  of 
the  Assembly  of  1777.  He  represented  Franklin  County 
in  the  Assembly  of  1779.  Bute  County  was  no  more. 
From  it  had  been  formed  Franklin  and  Warren  Coun- 
ties. In  this  Assembly  of  1779  he  presented  a  bill  for 
making  better  provision  for  the  poor,  and  so  far  as 
records  show  he  was  the  pioneer  in  the  movement  to 
establish  public  institutions  for  the  indigent  in  the  Old 
North  State. 

In  1781  Green  Hill  enlisted  as  Chaplain  of  the  10th 
regiment.  Sharp's  Company,  and  saw  service  the  same 
year  as  far  west  as  Salisbury,  when  our  armies  were  on 
a  retreat. 

On  November  30,  1782,  the  treaty  of  Paris  was 
signed  and  American  independence  was  a  fact  forever- 
more.  It  would  seem  that  the  time  had  come  for  Green 
Hill  to  retire  to  his  large  landed  estate  on  the  Tar  near 
Louisburg,  the  county  seat  of  Franklin,  and  leave  others 
to  assume  the  burden  of  public  duties.  He  had  taken 
a  strenuous  and  prominent  part  in  establishing  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  State  and  the  country.  But  the  idea  of 
retirement  had  not  entered  his  mind.    It  was  unsuited 


Green  Hill 


17 


to  his  temperament.  He  was  only  a  little  over  forty 
years  old.  He  was  too  useful  a  man  to  cease  his  func- 
tions as  a  burden  bearer.  In  1783  he  was  elected  Treas- 
urer for  the  District  of  Halifax.  There  were  several 
districts  and  as  many  treasurers.  All  State  officials  were 
under  the  governor.  He  was  also  elected  one  of  the 
Councillors  of  State,  which  position  he  continued  to  hold 
until  some  sime  in  1786,  as  is  shown  in  a  letter  written 
him  by  Governor  Caswell.  There  is  no  doubt  that  as 
treasurer  of  Halifax  County  he  had  some  trouble  with 
the  Assembly.  A  shortage  was  charged.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised, though,  to  find  that  in  the  Assembly  of  1789  the 
Committee  appointed  to  report  on  the  shortage  of  Green 
Hill  as  Treasurer  of  Halifax  District  reported  favorablv 
and  that  he  was  entitled  to  233  pounds,  thirteen  shill- 
ings, and  sixpence,  which  amount  was  directed  to  be 
paid  to  Mr.  Hill.  This  was  a  double  vindication.  In 
his  case  there  had  been  no  shortage,  but  a  reimburse- 
ment was  declared  necessary. 

THE  FIRST  ANNUAL  CONFERENCE  OF  ORGANIZED  EPISCOPAL 

METHODISM 

At  the  beginning  of  1785  there  were  fewer  than 
eighteen  thousand  Methodists  in  America.  There  were 
hardly  one  hundred  preachers.  Coke  had  been  sent  by 
John  Wesley  across  the  Atlantic.  The  famous  Christ- 
mas Conference  of  1784  had  been  held  and  Episcopal 
Methodism,  altogether  independent  of  the  Establisheei 
Church,  had  become  an  organized  force.  The  time  had 
come  for  the  holding  of  the  first  Annual  Conference  of 
organized  Episcopal  Methodism.  The  place  had  been 
selected.  There  was  no  directory  showing  the  homes  of 
the  preachers.  There  was  no  need  of  any  directory. 
There  was  only  one  home  for  all  the  preachers,  and  that 
was  the  home  of  Green  Hill.  It  w^as  one  of  those  plain, 
story-and-a-half  houses  so  comxmon  at  that  day.  Yet 
then  it  was  considered  a  mansion.  It  was  built  of  mas- 
sive timbers,  having  five  rooms  in  the  basement,  four 
on  the  second  floor  and  two  in  the  attic.  It  still  stands 
in  a  remarkable  state  of  preservation.    Through  one 


18 


Green  Hill 


door  you  look  southward.  Through  the  opposite  door 
you  see,  across  the  Tar  about  one  mile  distant,  the  beau- 
tiful town  of  Louisburg.  Close  at  hand  is  an  old  fash- 
ioned garden.  On  the  right  is  a  clump  of  cedars  guard- 
ing the  resting  place  of  the  dead,  among  whom  is  Edwin 
Fuller,  North  Carolina's  gifted  poet,  and  a  descendant 
of  the  owner  of  the  house. 

The  upper  story  of  the  house  now  contains  two 
rooms.  Originally  there  was  but  one  room.  In  this  one 
upper  room  the  First  Annual  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  in  America  was  held  on  April  20, 
1785.  Bishops  Asbury  and  Coke  presided.  This  Annual 
Conference  embraced  a  territory  covering  Virginia, 
North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina.  Twenty  preachers 
were  present.  There  was  John  King,  the  Oxford  scholar 
and  skilled  physician,  who  was  disinherited  by  his 
parents  when  he  became  a  local  preacher,  and  who 
crossed  the  occean  and  preached  the  first  Methodist 
sermon  in  Baltimore.  There  was  Jesse  Lee,  one  of  the 
doughtiest  knights  that  ever  went  forth  in  the  crusade 
of  Methodism.  There  was  Philip  Bruce,  the  boldest  of 
the  ''Thundering  Legion."  There  was  Reuben  Ellis,  one 
of  the  choicest  spirits  among  the  first  Carolina  preachers. 
It  is  very  probable  that  the  following  also  were  present : 
Edward  Dromgoole,  Francis  Poythress,  John  Easter, 
John  Dickins,  John  Tunnell,  Hope  Hull,  and  James 
O'Kelley. 

It  was  a  fraternal  meeting.  There  were  no  vexing 
questions.  Only  the  normal  work  of  the  new  Church 
was  considered.  Bishop  Coke  most  unwisely  injected 
the  slavery  question.  The  injection  was  unwise  not 
primarily  because  he  was  the  guest  of  a  man  who  had 
many  slaves,  but  because  the  question  was  in  extreme 
form  for  that  day  and  those  circumstances.  Fortunately 
he  did  not  push  his  radical  views.  The  gain  during  the 
year  was  gratifying.  There  had  been  991  members 
received.  The  work  was  extended  into  Georgia.  Philip 
Bruce  was  made  Presiding  Elder.  For  the  first  time  the 
term  and  the  office  came  into  use. 


Green  Hill 


19 


While  in  the  house  of  Green  Hill  were  held  three  other 
Annual  Conferences — in  January,  1790,  December,  1791, 
and  December,  1794 — it  is  probable  that  in  each  case 
the  members  of  the  respective  Conferences  were  enter- 
tained in  the  neighborhood.  By  this  time  the  population 
of  the  community  had  grown.  Bishop  Asbury  in  his 
Journal  says  under  date  of  January  19,  1792:  "I  rode 
with  no  small  difficulty  to  Green  Hill's,  about  two  hun- 
dred miles,  the  roads  being  covered  with  snow  and  ice. 
Our  Conference  began  and  ended  in  great  peace  and 
harmony.  We  had  thirty-one  preachers  stationed  at  the 
different  houses  in  the  neighborhood." 

It  can  thus  be  seen  what  a  gracious  host  this  great 
Methodist  was.  His  hospitality,  as  will  be  seen,  was 
extended  to  a  Methodist  Conference  in  another  State. 
We  must  be  careful  to  make  the  chief  fact  in  Green  Hill's 
life  not  that  he  entertained  so  graciously  the  first  Annual 
Conference  of  Episcopal  Methodism  in  America,  but  that 
he  acted  so  self-sacrificingly  and  heroically  in  making 
the  Methodism  whose  first  Conference  he  entertained. 

THE  PIONEER 

Green  Hill  was  destined  to  take  an  active  part  in 
another  great  movement  which  played  a  most  important 
part  in  the  development  of  this  country.  This  was  the 
pioneer  movement,  which,  toward  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  crossed  the  Alleghanies  and  helped 
to  build  up  the  great  State  of  Tennessee  and  other  States 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  frontier  has  ever  been 
the  goal  of  civilization's  advancing  columns.  Emerson 
Hough  has  said :  'Always  it  has  been  the  frontier  which 
has  allured  many  of  our  boldest  souls.  And  always  just 
back  of  the  frontier,  advancing,  receding,  crossing  it 
this  way  and  that,  succeeding  and  failing,  hoping  and 
despairing — but  steadily  advancing  in  the  net  result — has 
come  that  portion  of  the  population  which  is  not  content 
with  a  blanket  for  a  bed  and  the  sky  for  a  roof  above. 
The  frontier  has  been  the  lasting  and  ineradicable 
influence  for  the  good  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
there  we  showed  our  fighting  edge,  our  unconquerable 


20 


Green  Hill 


resolution,  our  undying  faith.  There,  for  a  time  at 
least,  we  were  Americans.  We  had  our  frontier.  We 
shall  do  ill  indeed  if  we  forget  and  abandon  its  strong 
lessons,  its  great  hopes,  its  splendid  human  dreams.' 
Green  Hill  had  been  resting  for  a  life-time  under  the 
lure  of  these  frontiers,  which  represented  the  establish- 
ment of  a  great  Church  and  a  mighty  Republic.  It  is 
not  strange  that  he  yielded  to  the  lure  of  that  other 
frontier  which  lay  toward  the  setting  sun  and  hid  the 
valley  in  which  the  battle  of  human  progress  is  to  be 
fought  and  in  which  our  Republic  shall  see  the  fairest 
fruitage  of  its  wonderful  energies. 

In  1796  he  crossed  the  Alleghanies  and  made  a  trip 
to  that  fairest  picture  of  our  Continent — the  section 
which  is  now  called  Mid-Tennessee,  and  into  which  at 
that  time  the  waves  of  a  pioneering  population  were 
washing.  As  he  went  he  preached.  It  is  both  refresh- 
ing and  inspiring  to  read  in  his  diary  his  eventful 
itinerary,  and  especially  to  see  that  as  he  went  he 
preached — not  in  the  church  houses,  for  there  were  few 
of  them,  but  in  the  majestic  groves  and  the  extemporized 
shanties  of  the  settlers. 

In  1799  Green  Hill  moved  his  family  to  Tennessee 
and  settled  about  twelve  miles  south  of  Nashville.  There 
among  those  beautiful  rolling  hills  he  built  a  residence 
which  he  called  Liberty  Hill.  It  was  hardly  so  pretenti- 
ous as  his  other  residence.  Liberty  Hall,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, but  it  was  considered  one  of  the  best  homes  in  the 
section  of  the  Alleghanies.  It  was  a  home  for  the  Metho- 
dist preachers  from  Bishop  to  Circuit  rider.  Here  in 
this  peaceful  home  Green  Hill  lived  as  the  affluent 
planter  and  the  active  local  preacher.  He  had  been 
ordained  deacon  by  Bishop  Asbury  on  January  21,  1792. 
He  was  ordained  elder  by  Bishop  McKendree  on  October 
4,  1813. 

mckendree's  first  conference 

It  was  at  Liberty  Hill  that  Bishop  McKendree  held 
his  first  Conference  in  1808.  This  was  the  Western 
Conference,  which  included  the  States  of  Tennessee, 


Green  Hill 


21 


Kentucky,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana, Illinois,  and  all  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi 
River. 

Bishop  Paine,  in  ''Life  and  Times  of  McKendree," 
says :  'The  conference  at  Liberty  Hill  was  held  at  a 
camp  meeting  [the  grounds  were  at  the  foot  of  the  hill 
on  whose  crest  stands  the  residence],  the  preachers 
lodging  on  the  encampment  while  the  Bishops,  in  view 
of  Bishop  Asbury's  feeble  health,  stayed  at  the  residence 
of  Col.  [Maj.]  Green  Hill.  As  there  was  but  one  con- 
ference at  that  time  in  the  West,  the  traveling  preachers 
collected  here  from  Holston,  Natchez,  Opelousas, 
Missouri,  Illinois,  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  cover- 
ing a  vast  field  of  labor — an  immense  theater  for  mis- 
sionary enterprise.  To  supply  this  extensive  and  extend- 
ing field  of  itinerant  occupations,  some  fifty-five 
preachers  had  been  employed  the  preceeding  year.  Many 
of  these  had  been  toiling  in  the  frontier  settlements  and 
had  come  hundreds  of  miles  to  Conference,  fatigued  v/ith 
travel,  enfeebled  by  affliction,  exposure  and  labor;  bare 
of  clothing;  in  money  matters  almost  penniless — really 
itinerant,  houseless  wanderers — but  they  brought  cheer- 
ing intelligence  of  religious  revivals,  and  growing  spiri- 
tual prosperity.  Bishop  Asbury  says  in  his  Journal : 
'We  have  had  2500  increase;  there  are  seven  districts, 
and  a  call  for  eighty  preachers.'  " 

A  CLOSER  LOOK 

Only  the  salient  facts  in  the  life  of  Green  Hill  have 
been  given.  Let  us  now  view  him  at  somewhat  closer 
range.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  he  is 
comfortably  settled  in  Tennessee.  He  is  far  past  life's 
meridian.  We  see  him  growing  old  gracefully  and  use- 
fully, having  behind  him  a  constructive  record  which 
has  lifted  him  far  above  the  average  in  the  roll  of  public 
characters.  He  had  given  distinguished  service  to  his 
State  as  patriot  and  legislator,  and  had  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  that  State  free  and  independent.  He  had 
thrown  his  whole  soul  into  the  spread  of  scriptural  holi- 
ness according  to  the  Methodist  faith.    He  had  not  only 


22 


Green  Hill 


seen  Methodism  established  as  a  strong  and  growing 
Church,  but  had  the  pleasure  and  honor  of  entertaining 
its  first  Annual  Conference.  He  had  become  pioneer  and 
had  established  himself  in  a  new  territory  in  which  his 
pioneering  spirit  found  its  accustomed  exercise. 

Green  Hill  was  married  twice.  Both  wives  were 
wealthy  and  represented  the  best  blood  in  the  State.  So 
he  enjoyed  not  only  acquired  wealth  but  inherited  wealth. 
He  was  a  large  slave  holder.  He  was  married  in  early 
life  to  Nancy  Thomas,  on  October  13,  1763.  The  chil- 
dren of  this  marriage  were :  Jordan  Hill,  who  resided 
in  North  Carolina  until  his  death  and  left  a  large  family 
of  children ;  Hannah  Hill,  who  was  married  to  Thomas 
Stokes  of  Chatham  County,  N.  C. ;  Nancy  Hill,  who  mar- 
ried Thomas  Knibb  Wynn  of  N.  C,  and  died  in  1791, 
leaving  a  number  of  descendants,  among  whom  were 
those  worthy  Methodist  laymen,  the  Southgates  of  Dur- 
ham, N.  C. ;  Martha  Hill,  who  was  married  to  Jesse 
Brown  of  N.  C,  and  moved  to  Tennessee  and  was  long 
a  resident  of  Lebanon ;  Richard  Hill,  who  died  in 
infancy.  Nancy  Thomas  Hill  died  on  January  16,  1772, 
On  June  3,  1773,  Green  Hill  was  married  to  Mary  Sea- 
well,  daughter  of  Hon.  Benjamin  Seawell  of  old  Bute 
County,  N.  C.  The  children  of  this  marriage  were 
Green  Hill,  HI,  who  died  in  Alabama,  leaving  a  large 
family  of  children;  Lucy  Hill,  who  married  Rev.  Joshua 
Cannon.  (They  moved  to  Tennessee  and  settled  in 
Williamson  County,  leaving  a  number  of  descendants)  , 
John  Hill,  who  after  having  gone  to  Tennessee  and  mar- 
ried, settled  in  Rutherford  County,  in  that  State,  leaving 
a  number  of  descendants;  Thomas  Hill,  who,  having 
married,  also  settled  in  Rutherford  County,  and  died  at 
an  extremely  old  age,  leaving  a  number  of  descendants ; 
Sally  Hicks  Hill,  who  was  never  married  and  died  in 
Williamson  County,  Tenn. ;  Mary  Seawell  Hill,  who  was 
married  in  Tennessee  to  Adam  de  Graffenreid,  and  died, 
leaving  only  one  child,  who  was  never  married;  William 
Hill,  who  married  and  settled  in  Rutherford  County, 
Tenn.,  and  died  in  Haywood  County,  leaving  one  son, 
Richard   Hill,   who   afterwards   became   a  Methodist 


Green  Hill 


23 


preacher;  Joshua  Hill,  who  moved  with  his  father  to 
Tennesee  and  afterward  married  Lemiza  Lanier  of  Beau- 
fort County,  N.  C.  He  was  a  local  preacher  in  the 
Tennessee  Conference,  but  died  young  in  1827,  leaving 
a  son,  John  L.  Hill,  who  was  for  years  a  member  of  the 
Tennessee  Conference.  The  daughter  of  Joshua  C.  Hill 
married  Rev.  William  Burr  of  Tennessee  Conference.  A 
descendant  is  Mrs.  Laura  Burr  Ferguson,  widow  of  the 
late  Gen.  F.  D.  Ferguson  of  Birmingham,  Ala.  In  Mrs. 
Ferguson's  possession  is  the  original  Bible  of  Green  Hill, 
and  to  her  and  her  son,  Mr.  Hill  Ferguson,  I  am  indebted 
for  much  interesting  data. 

Green  Hill  and  Dr.  John  King,  the  English  scholar, 
preacher  and  physician,  who  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  establishment  of  Episcopal  Methodism,  married 
sisters — members  of  the  Seawell  family.  Mrs.  Louisa 
Hill  Davis,  widow  of  the  late  M.  S.  Davis,  president  of 
Louisburg  Female  College,  and  whose  son.  Rev.  E.  H. 
Davis,  is  a  most  useful  preacher  of  the  North  Carolina 
Conference,  is  a  collateral  descendant  of  Green  Hill  on 
the  father's  side,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of  John  King 
on  the  mother's  side.  Much  space  could  be  given  to  the 
names  of  those  who  are  worthy  descendants  of  Green 
Hill.  They  are  many  and  are  found  in  almost  every 
Southern  State.  These  men  and  women  have  enriched 
almost  every  walk  of  life.  Some  became  preachers. 
One  was  a  gifted  poet,  Edwin  Fuller,  author  of  ''Angel 
in  the  Cloud."  Quite  a  number  became  jurists  and  states- 
men. Jordan  Stokes,  Sr.,  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  Green  Hill. 
Senator  Garland  of  Arkansas,  who  was  a  member  of 
President  Cleveland's  cabinet,  was  a  great-grand-son. 
Hon.  Robert  M.  Furman,  one  of  North  Carolina's  great- 
est editors,  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  our  Green  Hill. 
The  list  might  be  greatly  extended  and  it  would  take  m 
men  and  women  who,  while  not  so  prominent  as  some 
who  have  been  mentioned,  are  just  as  worthy  represen- 
tatives of  the  great  and  good  man  whose  life  is  being 
sketched. 


24 


Green  Hill 


HIS  PERSONALITY 

Green  Hill  has  been  described  as  a  man  of  dignified 
bearing  and  polished  manners.  With  his  large  wealth 
and  impressive  character  he  did  not  fail  to  exert  a  strong 
influence  among  his  fellow  men.  His  home  was  almost 
ideal  in  that  early  day.  He  never  failed  to  be  the  earnest 
local  preacher,  intensely  interested  in  the  welfare  and 
growth  of  the  beloved  Methodism  in  whose  establish^ 
ment  he  had  taken  such  a  practical  and  earnest  part.  He 
was  a  ready  and  fluent  speaker  and  was  fond  of  preach- 
ing the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  faith — free  grace, 
free  will,  and  individual  responsibility.  Rev.  G.  W. 
Sneed,  writing  of  him  in  the  Lady's  Companion  of 
August,  1849,  said:  ''His  talents  as  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel,  as  I  remember,  were  of  a  solid  and  useful  char- 
acter— not  so  much  of  a  philosophical  or  metaphysical 
cast,  but  of  a  plain,  experimental  and  practical  kind 
addressing  themselves  to  the  understanding  and  feelings 
of  all  classes,  enforcing  moral  obligation  and  duty  with 
power  upon  the  conscience.  He  understood  and  highly 
prized  our  doctrines  and  usages,  and  was  sufficiently 
versed  in  polemical  divinity  to  successfully  combat  the 
errors  of  infidelity  and  deism,  and  completely  to  refute 
false  doctrine." 

Bishop  Paine  had  this  to  say  of  Green  Hill:  'The 
writer  knew  him  well  and  spent  the  first  night  of  his 
itinerant  life  at  his  house  in  1817,  and  can  never  forget 
the  Godly  counsel  and  fatherly  treatment  he  received 
from  this  venerable  man  during  the  first  years  of  his 
ministry.  And  as  his  early  life  had  been  distinguished 
by  integrity,  patriotism  and  piety,  so  his  old  age  was 
venerable  and  useful.  There  is  a  moral  beauty  and  sub- 
limity in  the  gradual  decline  of  a  truly  good  and  noble 
old  man,  who,  passing  away  full  of  years,  ripe  in  wisdom 
and  rich  in  grace,  descends  serenely  and  triumphantly 
into  the  grave  amidst  the  regrets  and  veneration  of 
society." 

Green  Hill  died  September  11,  1826,  at  his  home  at 
Liberty  Hill.    Far  away  from  Old  Bute  County  among 


Green  Hill 


25 


whose  gently  rolling  hills  he  first  saw  the  light,  he  sleeps 
only  a  few  hundred  yards  away  from  the  house  which 
he  built  among  the  beautiful  hills  of  Mid-Tennessee. 
Near  his  dust  in  the  rock-walled  enclosure  is  the  dust  of 
wife,  sons,  daughters,  and  grand  children.  As  I  stood 
by  his  grave  in  the  light  of  a  golden  October  afternoon 
not  long  ago,  forgotten  were  the  weather  stains  of  a 
century  on  the  headstone,  forgotten  was  the  old  house 
swiftly  passing  into  decay,  forgotten  were  the  first  signs 
of  decay  in  the  hectic  flush  of  autumn  on  the  forest  that 
billowed  to  the  east.  I  thought  only  of  life — the  life  of 
the  Republic  which  Green  Hill  had  helped  to  establish; 
the  life  of  the  great  Church  into  which  he  had  poured 
his  very  life-blood ;  the  life  of  thousands  who  are  feeling 
his  influence  to-day,  and  of  thousands  who  will  feel  it 
in  the  years  which  are  to  come ;  the  life  of  that  simple 
Christian  faith  which  had  kept  true  and  strong  in  peace 
and  in  war,  in  youth  and  in  old  age.  I  seemed  to  see  a 
beautiful  picture  of  Life — glorious  Life — shining  above 
that  old  headstone  with  its  moss  obscured  lettering,  and 
as  I  reverently  gazed  upon  it,  I  repeated  to  myself  a  part 
of  the  inscription  found  on  the  headstone  of  one  com- 
memorated in  the  monument-filled  cathedral — the  11th 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Hebrews :  ''And  he  being  dead 
yet  speaketh."  His  memory  is  a  great  Church's  golden 
heritage.  He  needs  no  monument  of  marble  or  bronze. 
He  still  walks  his  rounds  of  service  wherever  Methodism 
lights  her  altar  fires,  whether  it  be  at  home  or  in  the 
far-olT  lands  into  which  she  is  throwing  her  picket  lines. 
Her  appreciation  of  such  a  man  should  find  expression 
in  a  memory  which  preserves  and  perpetuates  the  high 
ideals  of  righteous  civil  government  and  of  the  kingdom 
of  our  Conquering  Christ.  Happy  would  it  be  if  the  two 
dwellings,  one  in  North  Carolina  and  the  other  in 
Tennessee,  whose  doors  were  ever  open  to  the  homeless 
Methodist  preachers,  could  be  kept  through  the  years  as 
a  concrete  symbol  of  Methodism's  undying  interest  in  the 
Methodist  itinerant. 


Date  Due 


Form  335.    25M— 7-38— S 


975. 6     Z99F  192C-39~^~6 
nos.1-12 


